Rina was teased and bullied at school because of the way she looked. After one week, she refused to go back. A doctor at their local hospital told Rina’s parents, Rene and Divina, that surgery was possible to treat the condition. However, with four children to feed and clothe and Rene earning very little as a construction worker, they knew they’d never be able to save enough money to pay for her surgery.

Fortunately, we were able to connect with Rina’s family and provide her with a free surgery to repair her cleft lip. The teasing stopped, and she now enjoys going to school and playing with the new friends she’s made.

The safety of patients like Rina is, and always has been, our highest priority. Our passionate and highly trained medical volunteers understand that when parents bring their child to us, they are placing their trust in us to treat them as if they were our own. 

We take that responsibility to heart the entire time they are in our care.

Our team-oriented approach provides the highest quality care for patients living in countries with under-resourced health systems where safe surgery and cleft care may be unavailable or inaccessible to them.

Our community-focused patient recruitment efforts locate children in need of essential cleft surgery and provide them with accessible follow-up treatments. 

For patients who receive surgery, a new life can finally begin – a life that’s free from stigma and filled with the hope for a brighter future. Yet we know that our patients’ needs don’t stop when a surgical program ends.

The care we provide gives children the confidence to pursue the wonderful opportunities they were unable to realize. Learn how you can help make their dreams come true.

Our mission to create solutions that deliver safe surgery to people where it’s needed most drives us to expand our global reach and make a difference in the lives of more children and their families. 

Our priority is performing safe surgery and ensuring patients receive exceptional care. Sometimes, that means holding medical programs and establishing care centers in resource-limited settings.

This commitment can present challenges, but they are challenges we overcome every day. We focus on:

• Safe, sterile surgical environments: When parents arrive with their children at one of our medical programs, they receive care at a facility where the highest standards of surgical safety are practiced.

• A team approach: We provide the highest quality, multidisciplinary cleft care, with generous doses of love and empathy from our certified nurses, anesthesiologists, pediatricians, surgeons and other specialists.  

• Setting the stage for future success: During health screenings, we sometimes find that children require nutrition assistance or additional medical care. We provide this treatment so they can become healthy enough to receive surgery.

• Centers of ongoing care: The comprehensive care that children with cleft conditions need is provided year-round by a team of trained, dedicated, compassionate and local volunteers and staff at our 27 care centers in 18 countries. We help patients live more fulfilling lives by providing speech therapy, dentistry, psychosocial care and more.

The commitment we make to patients often only begins with surgery. Children born with cleft conditions often require multiple surgical procedures, dentistry, orthodontics, speech therapy and psychosocial care throughout their youth. Our teams encompass a wide range of medical specialists, all professionally certified and committed to providing excellent care for our patients at every stage of their treatment.

We provide every aspect of cleft care that is needed at no cost to families we serve.

Supported by more than 6,000 volunteers from over 60 countries, we provide world-class cleft care that transforms children’s lives in more than 30 countries. With your help, we’ve built the local capacity to provide surgery and dental care for thousands of children each year. Learn more about our global approach.